Cards and flowers are great, but what do working Moms REALLY want for Mother’s Day? Here’s what we need, beyond the usual gifts!
The idea of Mom being a superwoman is something that gets tossed around every Mother’s Day. You’ve seen the image of a Mom balancing a laptop, a baby, a spatula and a broom all at once.
Although it sounds flattering on the surface, the reality is far from it! Working Moms today are stressed out like never before, as living costs rise, job uncertainties loom, while traditional gender roles are still very much alive.
It’s no wonder, then, that the report on The State of Women in the Labor Market found that women are 5-8 times more likely than men to have their employment affected by becoming a parent. 70% of working Moms say they’ve had to make compromises in their careers to make space for their family’s needs.
This isn’t just hurting working Moms, it’s also hurting the economy. A Moody’s report found that a lack of support for working Moms is resulting in a loss of $7 trillion of global GDP.
So maybe we should start thinking beyond cards and gifts for Mother’s Day, especially when it comes to working Moms – here’s what they really want!
What Working Moms Want For Mother’s Day
Flexible Work Hours
Remember the pandemic when we were working from home, or at least partly from home, and everyone said this was the future of work? That was until a bunch of high-profile CEOs got together and declared working from home to be one of the ‘worst mistakes‘ made.
Of course, all the CEOs who made this claim were men – no one even bothered consulting working Moms! 46% of mothers agree that having a flexible work schedule was what they needed the most from their employer. This is in line with a Gallup finding, where 87% of people said that if available, they would choose the option of flexible work.
More mothers are opting out of work because of a lack of flexible work options – this number rose from 15% to 25% in just one year, signifying how much of a problem this has become.
Breastfeeding Support
New Moms have a hard time with sleepless nights and establishing a milk supply, and now working Moms have the added problem of finding breastfeeding support at their workplace.
The WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of an infant’s life, and complementary breastfeeding till the age of two. This is really hard to follow when you have to return to work and there’s no support – not even a place to pump!
90% of Moms said that even if their workplaces had rooms for pumping, they barely qualified as a ‘room’, and were often repurposed closets or storage units. Anyone who’s used a breast pump knows that you also need a place to wash and/or sanitize your pump parts.
Affordable Childcare
Even after they’ve crossed the breastfeeding barrier, working Moms (and Dads) have another major problem to deal with – childcare. Or, more specifically speaking, affordable childcare that’s also easily accessible.
The reality is that most parents find themselves either paying half their paychecks to a daycare center near their workplace or driving several miles to reach an affordable childcare center.
Not finding childcare options is a deal-breaker for most women. 52% of women say that they would return to work in an instant if they could find affordable childcare. Having childcare facilities at places of work not only solves this problem, but also enables new Moms to carry on breastfeeding their babies, while being productive at work since they’re now guilt-free!
Sharing the Load
The last thing working Moms want when they get back home after a hard day of work is to find that the family has been waiting for them to make dinner or help the kids with homework. Running a home is not only the mother’s responsibility, and working Moms across the world would like everyone to share the load!
The whole family can take on responsibilities according to their interest and abilities. Even children can help, depending on how old they are. At the very least, each person can clean up after themselves – washing their own dishes or cups, putting away their laundry, making their lunches or filling their water bottles. Simply everything with smart life hacks.
Cooking is something that takes up a lot of a mother’s time, and this is certainly not something to be dumped on her purely because of her gender. Dad can very well handle dinner, and if both parents have had long days, don’t feel guilty about ordering in!
Home Tech
Yes, it’s fun to create Ghibli-style images of yourself, but what working Moms really want is tech that eases their load and makes life easier for them! That’s why we love dishwashers, microwaves, food processors, instant pots, robot vacuums and garment steamers.
We would really love it if someone could also create tech that removes stains, makes uncomfortable phone calls on our behalf or decides our everyday outfits based on our mood! Which brings us to the next item on our list:
A Personal Assistant
Ask any working Mom and she’ll tell you that more than the physical work, it’s the emotional labor that really gets to her. Every Mom would love it if she didn’t have to think and plan every detail of the family’s life and if she could just outsource that part.
That’s where a personal assistant comes in – someone who can take over all the planning, reminding and even the execution of those random, everyday tasks. This could also be a virtual assistant sitting in another country who can work on your time. All you need to do is communicate exactly what you expect from them, and let them do all the work so you can free up your mind for more interesting things.
A Judgement-Free Society
With so much to deal with, the last thing working Moms want is other people’s judgment and unsolicited advice. Every Mom is doing what she thinks is best for herself and her family, and this will change for every individual depending on their own circumstances.
What society needs to do is to step back, let Mom make her own decisions and support her in whatever way possible. At the very least, don’t make things any harder for her!
All the items listed above don’t just benefit working Moms and their families, they also benefit employers and organizations. Studies show that when working Moms get the support that they need, they miss fewer days of work, are more focused and perform to the best of their ability.
So bring the flowers, chocolates and cards – we love them! But we would also like some systemic change in a society that doesn’t penalize a Mom for choosing to have a career along with a baby. When Moms are happy, the world is a much better place for everyone!
Prerna is the founder, editor and owner of ‘Maa of All Blogs’, one of India’s Top Parenting Blogs. Besides being a certified Ashtanga Yoga instructor, she is also a fashion designer and an economics graduate.
When she’s not busy running her home and business, she ensures she stays active – whether it’s running the half marathon, completing the Oxfam walk or climbing to the Everest base camp. Prerna enjoys wearing all her hats, and she does so in style!
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